CASTLE MORPETH WANTS HOUSEBUILDERS TO PAY FOR ROADS

A Castle Morpeth BC planning strategy aimed at making housing developers help pay for road improvements came under ...

A Castle Morpeth BC planning strategy aimed at making housing developers help pay for road improvements came under examination at a public inquiry yesterday, reports The Journal.

The council is insisting that house builders whose developments generate extra traffic should contribute to a central fund which will be used to finance new roads and improvements aimed at cutting congestion in key areas of the town.

The strategy was debated at a public inquiry into the council's district plan. The inquiry inspector, Patrick Whitehead, qestioned whether the policy was pushing the concept of planning obligations beyond that which had been seen in the past.

But the council's head of planning services, Guy Beauchamp, said Castle Morpeth was following similar strategies which had been used by local authorities in other parts of the country.

'We will be discussing with the House Builders' Federation and individual developers and landowners the best mechanism for delivering our policies but it is not something new or unestablished,' he said.

Investor confidence remains low due to a lack of clarity around Brexit which is causing a negative effect on the UK housebuilding sector, according to the chief executive of the British Property Federation.

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